Survey of patulin in apple juice concentrates in Shaanxi (China) and its dietary intake

This study surveyed the patulin level in the apple juice concentrates from Shaanxi province for four consecutive processing seasons, and evaluated the dietary exposure to this mycotoxin through apple juice. A total of 1987 apple juice concentrate samples were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode-array detector, and only 4 samples in 2007-2008 processing season contained patulin above 50 μg/kg, the current regulatory limit in apple juice. The incidence of patulin contamination varied significantly from 96.7% to 100% (P < 0.05) by processing season, and the patulin level among the four processing seasons varied significantly with the median level from 6.30 to 8.90 μg/kg (P < 0.05, Kruskal-Wallis test). The highest evaluated patulin intake based on the apple juice consumption from the World Health Organization's Global Environment Monitoring System/Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment Programme (GEMS/Food) was 1.04 ng/kg body weight (bw)/day in cluster diet F. And the patulin intakes for apple juice consumers among adults, children and babies were estimated to be 28.1, 67.5 and 110 ng/kg bw/day. All of the above values were well below the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake proposed by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.